ITV forecasts 2% decline in fourth quarter ad revenues

ITV is expecting its ad revenues over the year to come out "broadly flat" after a 6% drop in Q3 and a predicted 2% drop in Q4.

Britain’s main commercial broadcaster claimed it still expected to outperform the TV market in 2012, during which its viewing performance was unremarkable, with its share of commercial impacts (SOCI) dropping from 39.4% to 38.2%.

Adam Crozier, chief executive, blamed this on the number of unique events such as the Jubilee, Olympics and Paralympics, taking comfort from the fact that "nine out of the top 10 programmes aired will not return next year".

The broadcaster claimed the 6% drop in Q3 ad revenue, which puts its ad revenues for the first nine months of the year very slightly up year on year to £1.08bn, was "in line with our expectations".

Overall revenue for the first nine months of the year, which includes production income, grew 4% year on year to £1.57bn.

They expected the TV ad market to decline by around 3% year on year in October, 2% in November and between 2% and 5 % in December. This is predicted to contribute to a 0.8% to 1% decline in total TV ad revenue across 2012.

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